I've really missed watching the yearly airing of "The Sound of Music" the last several holiday seasons. Either it hasn't been on, or I've just been missing it! In any case, I was really excited to watch the new production of "The Sound of Music" last night on NBC. I'm a sucker for a musical, having grown up in musical theater, and "The Sound of Music" is one of those classics that I can't resist. I enjoyed watching the new production - I'm not a huge country music fan, but I thought Carrie Underwood did a fine job, though she's no Julie Andrews, and she managed to nail one of my favorite songs from the show, "My Favorite Things." Humming that song while brushing my teeth last night, it dawned on me that this is the perfect time of year to jot down a few of my favorite things, just in case Santa needs a few ideas for quilty items to stick in my stocking or under the tree...

Creative Grids rulers - You really can't go wrong with these rulers. They grip your fabric so nicely, and the lines are really crisp. I sure would love to get a 6 1/2" Quilting Ruler, as I have most of the larger square sizes and I already have my most favorite ruler size, the 6 1/2" x 24 1/2".


Aurifil - Santa, every quilter needs some Aurifil in her life! I'm a huge fan of the 50 wt (orange cone) for pretty much all things quilty. It would be fun to get a few fun colors of thread in one's stocking!

Graph paper - While I love using EQ, I do still love graph paper, and graph paper notebooks are a lot of fun to have around for doodling.

Extra bobbins - I've been meaning to buy some extra bobbins for my Juki since I bought the darned thing, and I keep forgetting, so they sure would be nice.

505 Basting Spray - Can't live without this stuff. I actually tried to pin baste a quilt earlier this year, because I was low on spray, thinking it couldn't be that bad and that surely I could do it. Um, no. I gave up and went out and bought a can of spray baste!



Seam Fix - I love a good seam ripper, and I think I've found my most favorite one to date, the Seam Fix . It's a seam ripper that has a bit of an eraser-like feature to it, to help grab all those tiny fiddly pieces of thread that you leave behind when you rip out a seam. It's fantastic, but seam rippers don't last forever, Santa. Plus, you know how prone I am to losing things! A backup would be good.

 
Batting Tape - Santa, you've seen me baste quilts - there's always leftover batting, right? I love using batting tape to fuse leftover chunks together into a big piece of Franken-batting! This stuff comes on a pretty big roll, but it goes quickly, so an extra roll or two would be handy. Just steer clear of the black rolls, because I've never used black batting, okay?

Tell me, friends, what are some of your favorite small quilty things? Are there any notions that you just cannot live without that you love to tell others about? When I teach, talking about notions is one of my favorite things to do after class, to compare notes and to learn about other notions I might never have tried otherwise, like that Seam Fix seam ripper.  And don't forget, today is the last day of the 2013/2014 combo deal for the Lucky Stars BOM!! I hope you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Last week before Thanksgiving, I decided to take my Juki into the shop. Couple the lack of sew-jo I've been feeling lately with the spring that mysteriously popped out whilst FMQ'ing recently, I figured she was due for a nice tune-up. I just got the call that it's going to another week before I see her again, thanks to a badly damaged needle plate. No idea what I did to the needle plate - or if it was even from me, maybe it was from the previous owner and I just didn't notice? - but it needs to be replaced, stat. Yikes. I sure hope the part comes quickly.

It's true what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder. This whole week that I've been without my machine, I've been missing it terribly. I even got out my old Husqvarna Viking in an attempt to sew something, only to get frustrated with how slow the darned thing is and give up. I think my sew-jo is trying to come back, bit by bit.

I've been spending my evenings on the couch, enjoying the light of the Christmas tree, and working on my Christmas cross-stitch sampler from last year that I never finished. I'm making good progress this year. It's really nice to unwind with a little cross-stitch at the end of the day. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it can be. With just another 20 and a 1/2 days until Christmas, it's entirely possible I might just finish this sampler before Santa makes an appearance! Happy Wednesday to you :)

It's hard for me to believe that my Lucky Stars BOM has officially come full circle, having started last December. The final block of the 2013 club went out to members yesterday, and it might just be my favorite of the bunch.

The Encore Star is another star within a star, with several different triangles swirling around the star. I think one of the reasons it's one of my faves is because of the mix of coral and navy within the block. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite color combinations! I also love that soft gray herringbone print from Willow that I used for the background, it's fantastic for a low volume background.


I'm excited to start putting together a few layout options for this year's quilt, which will be sent to all 2013 subscribers in a few weeks. My Juki is off at the sewing machine spa at the moment, getting pampered and tuned up nicely, so I'm looking forward to getting it back and sewing up my quilt top soon.

If you haven't joined in the fun for the 2014 Lucky Stars BOM, sign-ups are still open, and I've extended the 2013/2014 club subscription deal through the end of this week. For just $25, you get 26 different star patterns, each provided in two different sizes for a total of 52 templates. Talk about a deal! I'm also running a special today for Cyber Monday today only at my Pattern Shop - purchase a signed copy of my book, Becoming a Confident Quilter, and select one of my PDF patterns for free! To sneak a peek at more of the quilts from the book, you can check out the Flickr group right here. Add the PDF quilt pattern of your choice to your cart and enter code CYBER2013 upon checkout to get the deal. Happy shopping everyone and have a great day :)